Theatre Cedar Rapids brings ‘Madagascar’ to Brucemore

Last summer, goats were romping, chomping and entertaining onlookers in Brucemore’s timber. This summer, a lion, a hippo, a giraffe, a zebra, some lemurs, penguins and foosas will be doing the same thing in the historic estate’s outdoor amphitheater.

What’s a foosa, you say? It’s a carnivorous catlike creature that prowls for food in Madagascar.

And Madagascar is where the escapees from New York’s Central Park Zoo wind up in the rollicking hourlong stage version of the popular animated film and its various spinoffs.

Theatre Cedar Rapids is bringing all the excitement and danger of this African island adventure on the stage and through the lawn from Friday, July 7, to July 23, 2023. Hopefully, the hungry animals won’t eat your picnics and snacks. But you never know — anything can happen during these theatrical summer family excursions. Especially when a lion’s on the loose.

The play follows the movie’s story line “pretty closely,” director Lisa Kelly said, with the addition of new music for the play.

The four main characters — Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Gloria the hippo and Melman the giraffe — are big fish in the small pond of the Central Park Zoo.

“They’re kind of famous … or they believe themselves to be pretty famous,” Kelly said.

“Marty, the zebra decides he doesn't want to live cooped up in a zoo anymore. He wants to at least experience what it’s like to go out to the wild. So after his birthday, he runs away and decides to go find the wild, which he believes to be a train ride away. Turns out (it’s) just a little bit farther.

“And then they all end up on a boat to Madagascar and land in Madagascar, which is definitely not a zoo. There are new animals to encounter who don’t follow zoo rules. And (the zoosters) have to figure out how to deal with this new environment,” Kelly said.

The foosas are the “bad guys,” she explained. “Their goal in life is to mess up the lemurs’ parties, and as lemurs say, ‘rip their limbs off.’ They’re the hunters and they’re the characters that create drama amongst the other characters.”

But they aren’t the only ones with a flair for drama.

“Poor Alex, the lion, is a carnivore, and most of the food that (the zoosters are) offered is fish and plants. He gets very hungry and starts to hallucinate about wanting meat, so there’s a bit of drama between him and his friends when he accidentally tries to eat them,” Kelly said.

Horrified, Alex runs away. But in his darkest hour, the penguins arrive with a boat “and save the day,” Kelly said. “They have to repair the friendship between Alex and Marty, and Alex has to figure out what he can eat in Madagascar.

“Of course, it all ends up happily in the end.”

But like all the shows that leave the door open for a sequel, do they return to the zoo or stay where they are?

“Either way, they’re having a party,” Kelly said.

And like all the kid shows TCR stages at Brucemore, the audience gets in on the action.

“Several of the songs have audience participation ideas, like ‘Move It, Move It,’ which is the famous song from the movie,” Kelly said, “and there are times where we repeat certain choreography so the audience can learn it. We hope that they move it, move it along with us. And at least once or twice, (the actors) go out into the audience and interact with them during the show. They speak directly to the audience.

“So the hope is that, especially the little kids, will want to join in and sing and dance right along with them.”

Kelly has directed several animal-themed shows at TCR, including the recent “SpongeBob” musical on the main stage, and at Brucemore, “A Year with Frog and Toad” and “Elephant and Piggie.”

The trick is to help the actors create the human version of the animal, she said.

“We talked a little bit about characteristics, like how, particularly in this show, almost everybody plays at least two roles. So we talked about how to make them different, like the lemur moves differently from a foosa … differentiating between the characters making sure that they’re thinking about (that). Like, Melman’s a giraffe, so how can the actor playing Melman be bigger, and showing height a little bit — and just thinking about staging in that way,” Kelly said.

“Of course, like just like ‘SpongeBob’ and the other recent shows, they’re still people, but they look like animals.”

Kelly, cast and crew are having fun with this one.

“This particular cast is just so excited — they jump in and they’re full energy, and they’re so excited to portray these characters. They all grew up in the late ’90s, early 2000s, so they know like the source material so well. Many times in rehearsal, I’ll say something and they’re like, ‘My character wouldn’t do that because in spinoff number three, “The Penguins of Madagascar,” they did not do that.’

“They all know it super well and use that to inform how they make their character choices,” Kelly said. “They’ve just been so great at understanding that this show is for kids, and to be ready to deal with whatever the kids bring with them, and share the show with the kids.”

Kelly loves sharing it, too.

“I just love this,” she said. “I love giving kids their first experience of seeing a show. We’ve had the poster in the lobby for about a month or so now, and when we did the matinee for ‘SpongeBob,’ and all the kids were coming in for that, they were like, ‘Oh, “Madagascar,” I totally want to see that.’

“When we can bring their favorite movies to life on stage, and they can see them in a different way, and see that this is something they recognize, but it's a little bit different,” that’s the reward.

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com